Category: Editorials

2014 was an incredible year to be a PC or Mac gamer, and even better if you are a fan of classic RPGs. I am both, so I got to enjoy one of the best years of gaming I can recall since before Microsoft entered the console wars! If you love PC or Mac gaming, you must check these out!

I found a stack of old CDs in our attic a few weeks ago, and I was enjoying the nostalgia of listening to mix CDs I made 10-15 years ago. But as I’ve gone through the various tracks, I noticed a disturbing trend; many of the social issues being addressed in this CDs are still issues a decade later.

In 2003, NASCAR entered into a sponsorship with Nextel, which then merged with Sprint. This was well before smartphones were all the rage. Today NASCAR has announced that Sprint will be ending its relationship at the end of 2015, severing Sprint’s exclusive rights to apps covering the sport which is a good thing.

I’ve never used Uber, but I am familiar with it. They’ve had their fair share of issues related to their “surge” pricing, where the price of a ride can double, triple, or even quadruple depending on demand. But their response to their surge pricing during the hostage situation in Sydney, Australia showed Uber’s true attitude towards the communities they claim to …

If you were to guess what percentage of the world’s population had less annual income than you, what would you guess? Maybe 10%? Well, you’ll likely be surprised to find out that if you live in the US and eat regularly, you fall in the top 1% of the world’s wealthiest people, and more likely you are well under 0.5%!

I truly mourned the space shuttle’s demise. You see, Challenger, the second space shuttle, first launched on my birthday. Unfortunately, not long after that launch we lost Challenger. Then many years later we lost Columbia. This week’s launch of the Orion spacecraft signals a return to the capsules of old and in many ways a return to what works.

Last night I placed an order on Amazon and noticed something odd about the displayed delivery options. Look closely at the shipping times below. As a Prime member I should receive Free Two-Day shipping on eligible items. However when you look at Amazon’s current delivery options for an order placed today (Monday) it appears the are adding a day to the definition …

Here’s one Black Friday offer you should refuse. It’s the BlackBerry Passport at $200 off. If you fall for this deal, you are virtually guaranteed to be the only one amongst your friends to own this BlackBerry device (GSM unlocked – coal colored) – normally $699 now $499 through November 30, 2014.

A while ago I signed up with Tresorit, which is yet another cloud-based back up service. I eventually decided to close the account; in order to do so, I had to act like I was signing up for the service again to delete it! Why? I’m not sure, but that’s what they required.

Software defined radios are radios that are defined, primarily, with software. What does this mean? That means instead of needing a circuit to do the job, a portion of what the radio normally would do has been replaced by software. Want a different mode or even a frequency? Update the software. This has forever changed how radios are built.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, has written a heartfelt and beautiful letter in Bloomberg Businessweek coming out as a gay man. If you haven’t read it yet, please stop what you are doing, and read it immediately. It’s been a bit of an open secret for some time, but seeing him put it in writing is quite empowering and courageous.

Apple Pay rolled out last week, and it’s already hitting some roadblocks as some retailers are blocking or not supporting it. This isn’t because they hate iPhones, it’s because they have a competing product — CurrentC — waiting. A few years ago, companies wouldn’t have dreamed of blocking a new Apple product, but competition has made it easier to say no.

This week Apple held its second product announcement meeting in as many months, this time focusing on the iPad and Mac and Mac OS X. While the September meeting featured the major announcements of large-screen iPhones and the Apple Watch, the October announcements were more subdued – but let’s focus on the disappointing Apple iPad announcements.

Google today announced their widely anticipated Nexus 6 Android flagship smartphone. They unveiled two additional devices – one a Nexus 9 – a 8.9″ IPS screened tablet sporting 8MP rear camera, 1.6MP front camera. The other a Nexus Player featuring apps, games and more for your TV. Both the tablet and smartphone will run the latest version of Android 5.0 – now …

My son is very allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and sesame. Nuts are required by law to be listed, but sesame currently is not. We’ve gotten quite adept at calling companies about sesame as an ingredient, but disturbingly companies do not need to tell you without a doctor’s note … according to Heinz at least!

A few weeks ago I bought a brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on a great deal, and wanted to see if it would be possible to use it to replace my iPhone AND iPad, much as I would try to do with an iPhone 6+. As usual I went ‘all in’ with my attempt – and failed. Here is …

Somewhere between Apple’s and Samsung’s last quarterly earnings reports, Dan’s review of the Galaxy S5, Dan & Judie’s Sony Xperia X2s, the Ultra, discussions with friends about a variety of tablets we’ve all used, along with the statement by the Best Buy CEO that ‘tablet sales are crashing’ something occurred to me – we’ve been here before — with Windows CE.

The HTC One M8 has a double tap to wake feature, which is great. The One also has a security feature where 10 failed password attempts resets the phone. These two features came crashing together disastrously for me yesterday afternoon, so for now I’ve turned off the ‘double tap to wake‘ feature as a result.

It's been said for a very long time that the digital camera as a standalone gadget is a dying business. Smartphones are getting better as cameras, and as apps improve shooting and sharing photos, it has become less and less important to have a standalone camera. This past week I had two experiences that really sealed that message for me.

Until recently Facebook was, for me, mostly about communicating with Judie and the Gear Diary team. In the past few weeks however that has changed. And as I have used Facebook more and more I’m finding the “Like” button to be a fundamental flaw in Facebook’s approach. When strong emotions are involved the “like” button simply doesn’t cut it.